Cat Chat Feline Forum

Websites on the internet suggest an adult cat should be fed twice a day. One site said this was to stop the food going stale, another said it's to prevent getting flies etc on it. Presumably they are thinking of uncovered bowls, they don't make allowances for microchip feeders.

My cat is fed using microchip feeders, so when he is not at his bowl it is covered up. The makers of the feeders advised me in a phone call, that food can be left out for a day as it's covered.
He has 200g wet food and 50g dry food in two seperate feeders so that the moisture from the wet food doesn't affect the dryfood
(he doesn't usually eat it all)
I have a health problem that means I sleep erratically and excessively and I can't always feed him twice a day at the same time so I have been feeding him once a day in the M'chip feeder at about the same time and he grazes all day.

Do you think this is alright

nb I do have timed feeder bowls as well, which I don't use often, but once they are open they remain uncovered.

I think grazing is ideal - if the feeder is keeping the food cool and fresh I can't see a problem. If I have to be away for 24 hours I sometimes freeze a bowl of wet food and put that down too, so that it stays fresh for longer.

fjm wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 8:06 pm ............If I have to be away for 24 hours I sometimes freeze a bowl of wet food and put that down too, so that it stays fresh for longer.

Have you ever checked how long it takes to defrost ?
I tried that with a frozen pouch and it was defrosted in about an hour !

Absolutely fine. I have the same feeders and Molly has become totally relaxed about feeding times now, sometimes we're as much as 4 hours later than usual and she doesn't care because there is always some left, never an empty bowl. She has her dry on her cat tree now so it's out, I top it up as required and full change weekly. Fresh wet food twice daily but if I was away from morning till late or even for 24 hours I would just leave more wet down.

If your cat is happy, it's fine.

Defrost time depends on the room temperature - if I want to slow it down I put the bowl of food inside a frozen chill bowl and that way it stays edible till at least next morning. Tilly is strange in any case - she will often prefer the "old" food to the fresh, so I often leave them out side by side for a while.

I've had a few cats that like to eat old dry food - Molly liked to nibble on her supper at 4am, Lucy likes to save some breakfast till after her tea, and in the morning will come and eat leftover supper despite there being fresh food downstairs!! In the beginning I would put her old bowl on the worktop while I fed the fosters, and come down to find she'd jumped on the worktop to eat it, so I just leave them down now!